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Hutt’s presence at the head of a parade certainly worked wonders. A new tank cost £5,000 and Coventry’s mayor had set an ambitious target of £500,000.

Incredibly, by the end of the week, Coventry had raised £2,382,350 – an unbelievable £18/6s/6d per head of population.

That’s almost £1,200 each in today’s terms.

And to put that further into perspective, Birmingham Tank Week realised £7/10s per head, Leicester £8/18s and Derby £10/8s.

The sums have been uncovered by Richard Pursehouse and Lee Dent, the two historians behind Staffordshire Great War group, The Chase Project.

Certainly, no-one could have been unmoved by the astonishing actions of Hutt, from Caludon Road.

The then private in the 1/7th Battalion of The Royal Warwickshire Regiment was aged 28 when he earned the VC in Belgium.

On October 4, 1917, during the advance on the villages of Poelcapelle and Passchendale, Hutt was part of a platoon decimated during heavy fighting. With every officer and NCO either killed or wounded, he inexplicably decided to take matters into his own hands.

He rushed forward alone, firing furiously at a German post. Hutt shot the officer and three men, and around 40 others surrendered.

His heroics did not end there. Hutt also carried four wounded man back to the safety of their own lines.

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He was certainly afforded a hero’s welcome when he arrived home by train for Tank Week, where he and his wife were met by dignitaries.

Mayor Alick Hill had persuaded the National War Savings Committee that Corporal Hutt’s presence at a Tank Week would help raise “at least half a million pounds”. He was rightly proud of Coventry’s VC winner and had opened a trust funded by public subscriptions for the hero.

But Hutt was not the only star of the show. Also taking centre stage was Tank 119, Ole Bill, one of four metal leviathans touring the country.

It got its name from popular wartime cartoon character Old Bill, a pipe-smoking, walrus-moustached Tommy who played a significant part in propaganda, and had been created by Stratford-upon-Avon cartoonist Bruce Bairnsfather.

Ole Bill arrived at Coventry goods station in the early hours of Sunday, February 10, after a successful promotional visit to Wolverhampton.

In the Black Country town, it had helped the populace raise over £1,410,000 and it arrived in Coventry with a garland of artificial flowers, presented by a schoolgirl, draped over its front.

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It shook the earth as it passed the crowd, crawling at four miles an hour on its way to the park at Greyfriars Green, Broadgate – a parcel of land where a Blue Peter-style clock had been erected to show the number of war bonds sold.

Hutt led a procession which included the Leicester Military Band, 200 disabled or discharged servicemen, and 50 members of the Royal Flying Corps who pointed to the planes performing loop-the-loops in the skies above.

Also in the procession were members of the Red Cross and female representatives of White and Poppe’s Fire Brigade.

Ole Bill was to remain behind a hastily assembled barricade at Greyfriars Green for a week.

The mayor officially declared the “tank bank” open and handed a £1,000 cheque to Corporal Hutt, a gift from wellwishers.

He invited the VC recipient to be the first customer to attend the marquee – where 22 female staff were ready to accept donations.

The mayor was second, with a £5,000 cheque.

Tuesday alone raised £402,000, one local firm ordering 25,000 bonds.

Arthur Hutt with the Mayor

Several Insurance companies, such as the Prudential, Pearl Assurance, the Eagle Star and British Dominions Insurance Ltd, and Britannic Assurance, offered investors an opportunity to pay in instalments, although the full amount would be handed over by these companies to the Government with immediate effect.

One woman munitions worker took up War Bonds to the value of £100 because of the “easy payments system” and hoped fellow workers would do the same.

She worked at the Coventry Ordnance Works, whose employees had invested £33,300 on the Tuesday.

On the same day, Harry Williams from Kenilworth – joint composer of popular wartime song It’s a Long Way To Tipperary – came to the Tank Bank to invest £1,000.

The Reverend Canon A.G. Robinson, standing on the tank, rallied the crowd to give freely, telling the women “You can easily do without a new hat”, and the men: “A little less in the tankard and a little more in the tank.”

Dr Brazil followed, pointing out that Coventry had invented the tank, and Daimler built the engines.

Arthur Hutt beside 'Ole Bill'

He told those present: “We are fighting for the sanctity of our homes, ruthlessly and foully invaded by the Germans in France and Belgium, and desecrated in ways too shameful to be mentioned.

“We are fighting for the honour of our wives and daughters against a nation so revoltingly foul that wifely virtue and virgin purity seemed to exist for them, only to be trampled under the heel of bestial passion, and that by official order and sanction.”

A Woman’s Day was staged midweek, opened by the mayor’s wife who invested £1,000. One Mrs Mansell declared: “I would give my last penny and eat my boots rather than give in to Germany.”

Businessman David Cooke offered to give £100 for every £500 invested by individuals. By the end of Wednesday, the fund had realised £609,693, smashing the mayor’s target.

The Midland Telegraph urged residents not to sit on their laurels.

“Feed the brute,” trumpeted the newspaper in reference to Ole Bill.

“Freedom is a good investment, the safety of the British Empire from Hunnish horrors and the Prussian yoke is a good investment.”

Members of the British Legion led by Corporal Arthur Hutt, right, march through Coventry. Picture circa 1950

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Friday, February 19 was designated Business Day and within half-an-hour firms had presented another £301,000.

Daimler Ltd invested £150,000 and its employees a further £55,900; Humber Ltd £25,000 and its employees £29,000; Rover employees parted with £25,000.

Others included £100,000 from Messrs Rudge-Whitworth, £25,000 from Triumph Cycle Company and £100,000 from Courtaulds, where Corporal Hutt worked before the war.

Courtaulds bought £250 worth of war bonds for Corporal Hutt and also presented him with a gold watch and chain. His wife received a gold wristlet watch.

Gold to the value of £841 was exchanged for bonds and one woman made Telegraph headlines by emptying a Gladstone bag containing £40 worth of silver on the marquee table. “Found Under My Bed” the headline blared.

As the newspapers went to press late on Saturday afternoon, only approximations of the amount invested could be provided, although evening editions of the newspapers stated over £1million had been taken.

The unveiling of the granite memorial to First World War Coventry soldier Corporal Arthur Hutt V.C. at the War Memorial Park, Coventry. In this photo are three V.C. holders (left to right): the Rev. Arthur Herbert Proctor, vicar of St. Peter's church at Claybrooke Parva, near Lutterworth, Mr Henry Tandey, Mr William Beesley, both from Coventry and the city's Lord Mayor Alderman J. Fennell who performed the unveiling ceremony. April 17 1955

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On Monday, February 22, it was announced Coventry Tank Week had realised £1,370,236, or £10/10s/9d per head. When the Tank Bank sales were combined with the amount raised for ‘standard’ War Bonds, this figure totalled £2,382,350 or £18/6s/6d per head.

Coventry’s was an impressive effort at a time when the Germans were preparing their spring offensive in Flanders, unleashed barely four weeks after Ole Bill had left Coventry for Northampton.